Episode 214: Truth and Reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation is the fourteenth episode of the second season and the twenty-sixth episode overall. Notes * Clients: Claude Laurent * Bad Guys: Victor Stecker-Epps, Jean Pierre Duman, Duman, Sr., Gustavo Synopsis Facing pressure from Sam and Fiona, Michael agrees to help bring a Haitian murderer to justice. Spy Facts *Bribery's a lot more difficult than it sounds. There's no way to shop around, so you usually overpay for whatever information you're after. There's no money-back guarantee if the information's bad. And, of course, the only thing that you know for sure is that you're handing your money to a thief and a liar. *When someone is asking for sensitive information, it's basic security to make sure that the person you're dealing with is who he says he is. An easy way is to change details that the other person would know. *Spend enough time in international hot spots, and you learn that a lot of the worst monsters on Earth are just spoiled rich kids. Mass murderers come in many shapes and sizes, but they tend to drink the same brands of Champagne. *People love the sound of their native tongue. Even the most security-conscious person often lets his guard down when he hears somebody who speaks his language. If that somebody happens to be in a designer dress – so much the better. *Staying hidden isn't always about sticking to the shadows. In fact, if your enemy's eyes are adjusted to the dark, there's no better place to be than behind the brightest light you can find. *If you've spent time working for the government, you understand that it's a game with its own rules. If you want to make the government work for you, you have to understand how the game is played. An FBI agent might hate you, but if working with you gets him out of an assignment he hates even more, you've got yourself a partner. *Being a fugitive takes work. When you're being hunted, hiding isn't something you can do effectively without help. So the best way to catch a fugitive isn't to approach him as one of the people hunting him down. It's to approach him as one of the people who can help him stay on the run. *Working covert ops, you learn to exploit weakness. You manipulate greed, fear, pride, to make people do what you want. But when you're dealing with true believers, those weaknesses aren't there. All you can do is help or get out of the way. *As a spy, it's usually best to be unknown. It allows you to adjust to any situation and be whoever you need to be. However, there are certain advantages to being known. A reputation can be a powerful tool. *Most people have a hard time letting go of their past. The same guy who will burn a village to the ground without a thought, often won't throw away an old necktie because it reminds him of his high school graduation. If you know what you're doing, you can hang him with that necktie. *It takes a lot longer to pull a gun than most people think it does. Almost five seconds on average to draw and line up a shot. Whether this is good news or bad news depends on what side of the gun you're on. *When you're abducting someone, transportation usually isn't the issue. There's no trick to driving a truck with someone hidden in the back. The challenge is getting them into the truck. You can walk them in, drag them in or let gravity do the work and drop them in. *Spend time with corrupt, homicidal, Third World political figures, and you hear a lot of self-pity. What kind of man throws his political enemies in prison and tortures them to death? Usually it's a guy who feels so sorry for himself, he feels justified doing anything. Killers, by and large, are whining losers. But that doesn't make them any less dangerous. *Most over-the-counter allergy medicines contain mild sedatives. In the right dosage, they cause a pleasant drowsiness. In the wrong dosage they cause dizziness, hallucinations and unconsciousness. *If you suspect you're walking into an ambush, searching for where the bad guys are hidden is probably going to get you killed. Unless you get lucky and find them in the first place you look, you are dead. If you can manage it, the best move is to make it impossible to hide. *When you're in a foot chase, the trick is to stay in visual contact with whoever you're pursing until they run out of gas. Of course, visual contact doesn't do you much good if you're separated by a 12-foot-high razor-wire-topped fence. Full Recap Prologue :Bribery's a lot more difficult than it sounds. There's no way to shop around, so you usually overpay for whatever information you're after. There's no money-back guarantee if the information's bad. And, of course, the only thing that you know for sure is that you're handing your money to a thief and a liar. Michael and Fiona are on their way to a parking garage to meet Gustavo, a bank manager from the Cayman Islands who Michael found is handling payroll for the assassin who tried to kill Michael. Michael has arranged to bribe Gustavo for more information on the assassin. Fiona is skeptical that Michael will learn anything from this man, and worries that he is taking too big a risk. Michael says every first meeting has an element of risk - if she recalls, he was warned not to meet with her (in Northern Ireland), but he did it anyway. She rejoins that the warning was well-founded: during their first meeting, she almost blew his hand off with a bomb. "And I made a friend," he ripostes, "maybe I'll make another one." Michael meets Gustavo on a deserted level of the parking garage. Gustavo shifts and stammers nervously, while clutching a manila file folder to his chest. Michael offers the bribe money, but Gustavo demands to know how Michael tracked him down in the first place. :When someone is asking for sensitive information, it's basic security to make sure that the person you're dealing with is who he says he is. An easy way is to change details that the other person would know. Michael reminds Gustavo that they made a deal when they spoke on the phone: $8,000 for the file. Gustavo says he doesn't care what he said on the phone, $8,000 is not enough for the risk he's taking. Michael coolly informs him that Gustavo insisted on $10,000, and they never spoke on the phone. Michael smiles and asks "Gustavo" to tell him who he really is. Gustavo's nervous manner, and his accent, disappear and he pulls out a switchblade and slashes at Michael, scoring a glancing hit on his upper arm. Michael grabs "Gustavo's" knife arm and breaks it. Gustavo pulls a second knife and Michael kicks him away, inadvertently sending him over the rail and falling to the concrete below. His file falls to the ground, sheets of blank paper blowing away in the wind. Michael curses to himself: another lead that has been closed off. He runs downstairs, clutching the wound in his arm, and climbs into Fiona's getaway car. "He didn't want to make friends" is his explanation. Act One In his apartment, Michael is testing the functionality of his wounded arm when Sam drops by carrying an enormous saltwater fish in both hands, saying a buddy of his on the Miami Police force caught it when he took his boat out, and Sam brought it to Michael as a gift. Michael asks if that is all Sam got, and Sam says no, he also got a glimpse of a police report from the Caymans, revealing that the real Gustavo was found dead in a bar. As for the "Gustavo" who attacked Michael, Sam reports that there is no record of his entry into the country, meaning he was probably smuggled in. Michael says Fiona has several contacts in Miami who do just that sort of work, and invites Sam (and the fish) to join them for lunch at the Carlito. "Maybe they'll cook it for you." But as they are leaving, Michael is hailed by a Haitian man, Claude Laurent, who says he heard about Michael from an acquaintance and wants to hire him. Claude immediately presses a wad of cash into Michael's hand, but Michael asks what he wants. Claude explains that his daughter, Veronique, was murdered in Haiti several years ago, and the man who ordered her death, Jean-Pierre Duman, is living in Miami under an alias. Claude excitedly shows them a letter from the Inter-american Court of Human Rights, indicting Duman in absentia as a criminal. Duman was an official in Haiti, Claude explains, and when Veronique spoke out against him, he had her thrown in prison and then killed. Michael and Sam regretfully inform Claude that the letter has no legal weight in the United States, and they cannot take action without proof of Duman's identity. Michael advises Claude to go back to Haiti and go on with his life, adding that Veronique would not want him to risk his safety. Claude snatches the letter back, saying Michael knows nothing of Veronique, and is not fit to speak her name. He adds that their mutual acquaintance must have been misinformed when he described Michael as a man of honor. Michael and Sam can say nothing as Claude leaves in disgust. While they are waiting at the Carlito's restaurant for Fiona, an uncomfortable silence hangs between Michael and Sam. Sam mentions that he had several friends who served in Haiti, saw the horrors inside their jails, and saw more than a few monsters get away with doing truly "evil" things. Sam confesses that, hearing those stories, he always wished he could have done more. Sam pretends to agree with Michael that the whole thing is probably a waste of time, and Michael should just forget about it... "a man and his daughter." With a sigh, Michael asks if Sam thinks he should help Claude, and in a flash, Sam produces a dossier that he worked up in the men's room, with a list of places Duman likes to hang out in Miami. Before Fi arrives, Madeline calls Michael's cell phone and tells him there was a break-in at her home. He heads over and finds that some teenage thieves ripped the tape deck out of her car. Michael tries to tell his mother that this was not worth calling him over, but she reveals that her latest plan for "re-connecting" with him is for them to look into the neighborhood burglaries together, like partners. Michael tries to avoid this scheme, and his mother asks that he at least give her a ride to the store, since the car won't start now: Michael's father, who installed the tape deck in the first place, wired it directly to the ignition system, which now has half of its wires ripped out. :Spend enough time in international hot spots and you learn that a lot of the worst monsters on earth are just spoiled rich kids. Mass murderers come in many shapes and sizes but they tend to drink the same brands of champagne. That evening, Michael and Sam get their first look at Duman at a Miami Beach club, sipping champagne and ringed with appreciative ladies, as well as half a dozen hulking bodyguards. Sam fills Michael in on Duman's history: his now-deceased father was a regional governor in Haiti, egregiously corrupt, and Jean-Pierre was the administrator of the region's prison. Anyone who spoke out against him or his father was rounded up and thrown in jail. "The lucky ones," Sam adds grimly, "were just executed." After the last election ousted Duman, Sr. from office, the family disappeared, along with a sizable chunk of Haiti's gross national product. Now Jean-Pierre is a professional playboy, under the alias "Luc Renard," throwing wild parties at his family's compound on Star Island. Sam reminds Mike that "nobody throws everything away when they go off grid," meaning even international fugitives are unwilling, or unable, to erase all traces of their former identities. Sam is convinced that if they can get into Duman's compound, they can find the evidence they need to prove his identity. Mike calls Fi and invites her to a party. :People love the sound of their native tongue. Even the most security-conscious person often lets his guard down when he hears somebody who speaks his language. If that somebody happens to be in a designer dress – so much the better. Fiona, dressed to the nines and flanked by two husky male escorts, strolls toward Jean-Pierre's private corner of the club. When his bodyguards block her path, she protests in fluent French, and the sound is enough is turn Jean-Pierre's head, even through his ring of female companions. He introduces himself as "Luc Renard," she as "Claire Honore." They exchange a few flirtatious words in French, and he invites her to a party later that evening. A short time later, Fiona is wandering around Jean-Pierre's exclusive, heavily-guarded compound on Star Island. Michael and Sam are parked a few blocks away. She gives the guards the slip and sneaks into the man's office, planting a bug under the desk. Suddenly they hear someone yelling from outside. From the balcony, she sees Claude, standing on the roof of his car and shouting through a megaphone, challenging Duman to show himself and answer for his crimes. She also sees a very angry Duman ordering his guards to take care of the old man, immediately. She warns Michael that he has thirty seconds to save Claude's life. :Staying hidden isn't always about sticking to the shadows. In fact, if your enemy's eyes are adjusted to the dark, there's no better place to be than behind the brightest light you can find. Michael dashes to Claude's side and tells him to get in the car. As the gate opens and Duman's men emerge, drawing their guns, Michael turns on the car's high-beams, blinding them for a few crucial seconds, as Michael jumps into the car and throws it into reverse, speeding away as the guards open fire. Act Two In Michael's loft, Claude asks Michael what made him change his mind. Sam says Michael may be a little slow to act, but in the end, he is a man of honor, just as he was described to Claude. Michael says their next move is to "convince" Duman to produce documents proving his true identity, but tells Claude to return to Haiti. When Claude refuses, Michael assures him they don't need his help to get the job done, and it is safest for Claude to leave Miami. Claude says he understands. Over lunch, Fiona tells Michael that she may have a lead on the man who smuggled the fake Gustavo into the country. She adds that it was plenty difficult, since gun runners and people runners are two very distinct communities of smugglers in Miami, and the two do not get along. Sam snipes that Fiona is not much of a people person, and she retorts that all of Sam's contacts are government drones, which makes him useless to their current investigation. Michael tells them both to settle down, and to keep looking. Fiona abandons her plate and leaves the table. Sam gives Michael an update on the Haiti case: Duman's family was closely involved with Flintridge Industries, a multinational corporation that built several prisons in Haiti. The F.B.I. have been investigating Flintridge for years, but nothing ever seems to stick. Michael tells Sam that it is time to "mend some fences" with the F.B.I. :If you've spent time working for the government, you understand that it's a game with its own rules. If you wanna make the government work for you, you have to understand how the game is played. An FBI agent might hate you, but if working with you gets him out of an assignment he hates even more, you've got yourself a partner. Agents Lane and Harris are on a stakeout, surveilling an 80-year-old woman as she hobbles to her mailbox. Both agents can hardly keep their eyes open, let alone fake an interest in the lady's actions. Sam bursts into the backseat (causing Harris to spill his coffee) and says their target looks dangerous. Lane stiffly informs Sam that they are working a racketeering case, investigating the biggest drug-smuggling family in South Florida. Sam asks sarcastically if the old lady is the "Boss," and Lane, embarrassed, says she is the Boss's grandmother. Sam doesn't even try to swallow his laugh, and says he brought them a present: a new case, one they can be proud of. Harris asks if Sam is feeding them the same "crap" he did when he was reporting on Michael, but Sam says the information is solid: an international fugitive, living on the agents' turf in Miami, connected to a case the Bureau is already working. Harris demurs, saying the investigation is someone else's department, and the information would be useless to them. Sam appeals to their better natures: in the end, the two agents work hard to be "the good guys," and Sam is handing them a lead towards catching a real villain. All he's asking is that they check it out, and if they're interested, Sam will give them a time and a place. He slides out of the car, adding with a smirk that if they want the old lady "taken out," to give him a call. As soon as he's gone, Harris starts reading the dossier. :Being a fugitive takes work. When you're being hunted, hiding isn't something you can do effectively without help. So the best way to catch a fugitive isn't to approach him as one of the people hunting him down. It's to approach him as one of the people who can help him stay on the run. Duman is enjoying lunch with his usual ring of female companions, when a sharply-dressed Michael walks up to the table and politely informs them that he has an urgent meeting with "Monsieur Duman." Rattled at hearing his true name, Duman dismisses his companions and asks Michael what he wants. Michael claims to be a freelance operative specializing in helping fugitives adopt new identities. Michael says his clients include Flintridge Industries, who are none too happy that Duman is close to being exposed and have hired him to help Duman stay hidden. Duman insists that he's "Luc Renard" and has no idea what Michael is talking about, but Michael says the F.B.I. have already seen through Duman's cover identity. Michael gestures out the window, and Duman sees an unmarked sedan parked outside the restaurant, Lane and Harris peering through the window at him. Michael slips a business card into "Luc's" pocket, assuring him, "I'm not the problem. I'm the solution." While Michael is "working" Duman, he has sent Sam to Madeline's house to help with her problems. Madeline says she is capable of re-wiring the car herself, and asks Sam in the meantime to give her a ride to her exercise class. Sam, thinking he's getting off easy, agrees, only for Madeline to cheerfully say that he can be her stretching partner as well. Later that day, Sam limps around Michael's apartment, groaning extravagantly. Michael wryly asks if he's okay, and Sam gripes that his body was not made for the hip adductor stretch. Sinking onto Michael's bed, he wedges a cold beer into his crotch, earning an askance look from Michael. "What?" Sam defends, "I got an inflamed bursal sac, I've got to ice it down." Sam gently suggests that Michael take the lead in dealing with his mother, when a radio on Michael's table relays a conversation from the bug Fiona planted in Duman's office: Duman angrily rebuking his bodyguards for failing to keep him safe and hidden. One of the bodyguards mentions the old man with the megaphone that they chased off the property, and guesses that he was the one who tipped off the F.B.I. The bodyguard adds that he has identified the man as Claude Laurent, and the man is staying at a motel in Miami. Duman demands to be taken there immediately. Alarmed to hear that Claude has not left Miami, Michael and Sam jump up and rush to Michael's car (Sam continuing to groan in pain). Before Duman and his men can storm Claude's hotel room, Michael appears in their path, still wearing his suit, and telling Duman that killing the old man will only attract more attention, which will greatly upset Michael's other clients. When Duman tries to push past him, Michael draws his pistol, causing Duman's bodyguards to do the same. Watching from behind the wheel of the Charger, Sam tenses and waits for the gunfire to start. Michael tells Duman, "I can change your story, or end it." Either way, he says, it is his responsibility to his clients to make sure Duman remains unknown. After a pause, Duman tells his men to lower their guns, and invites Michael to his house the next day, then leaves. Act Three That evening, Michael and Sam are arguing with Claude at Michael's loft. Michael angrily reminds Claude that he agreed to leave Miami, and Claude says he never agreed to that. What Claude said is that he understood that it would be safer for him to leave Miami, but Claude doesn't care about his safety, he wants to see Duman brought to justice. Sam assures Claude that he and Michael will get the job done, and tells Claude that Veronique would not want him to get himself killed. In an anguished voice, Claude says that that is exactly how his friends convinced him not to go to the prison to demand Veronique's release, or to go to the newspapers to expose Duman's crimes. In his heart, Claude believes it was his own cowardice that caused Veronique's death, and he swore he would not fail her again. Sam tries to tell him that Veronique's death was not his fault, but Claude vows that he will not leave Miami until Duman is returned to Haiti to face his crimes. With that, he picks up his bag and heads for the door. :Working covert ops, you learn to exploit weakness. You manipulate greed, fear, pride, to make people do what you want. But when you're dealing with true believers, those weaknesses aren't there. All you can do is help or get out of the way. As Claude opens the door, Michael tells him to wait; Claude isn't safe at his motel, and Michael offers to let him stay in the loft until the job is done. Claude shuts the door gratefully, and Sam gives Michael an approving smile. Michael returns to Madeline's house to check on her, and is concerned to see that she is still tinkering with the car's wiring. He asks her to let him handle it after his job is done. She insists that she can handle it, and isn't worried about electrocuting herself - "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Trust me, I know" - through her usual haze of cigarette smoke. Instead, she asks Michael to accompany her down to the police station and look through mug books of the area's known burglars. Michael declines, and Madeline asks in exasperation what he is working on that is so important. Michael flatly tells her the truth: that he is helping a man bring his daughter's killer to justice. Madeline sobers, and chirps that if Michael needs any help with that job, to let her know. At the marina, Fiona calls Michael and tells him she's tracked down the smuggler who brought Michael's fake banker into the country. Michael tells her to go easy on him, and Fiona quickly hangs up, telling Michael he's breaking up. :As a spy, it's usually best to be unknown. It allows you to adjust to any situation and be whoever you need to be. However, there are certain advantages to being known. A reputation can be a powerful tool. Fiona casually approaches the smuggler, Gary, and asks about his most recent job. Gary, who has encountered Fiona before and heard plenty about her other activities in Miami, is doing his best not to appear terrified. He says he picked a guy up and dropped him off, and never knew his name. Fiona acts disappointed, saying she considers Gary a friend, and is used to expecting more from her friends. Gary admits that he dropped the guy off at a storage facility, and swears that is all he knows. Fiona buoyantly asks him if he has the address. While Michael is dressing for his meeting with Duman, Fiona shares the information while she peruses a brochure for the storage facility. She suggests, only half-joking, that Michael look into moving into one of those units, several of which are very spacious and (unlike the loft) have air conditioning. Michael promises to look into it after the job is done, and, in a moment of tenderness, asks Fiona's help in setting his tie. :Most people have a hard time letting go of their past. The same guy who will burn a village to the ground without a thought often won't throw away an old necktie because it reminds him of his high school graduation. If you know what you're doing, you can hang him with that necktie. Michael enters Duman's compound on Star Island, and is guided to Duman's office, where Duman opens a briefcase with a set of documents from his past life in Haiti. It is everything Michael needs, but he conceals his excitement and explains to Duman that he will take the documents and use them to carefully erase all former traces of "Jean-Pierre Duman" and replace them with new documents giving Duman a brand-new identity. Before Michael can take the briefcase, however, the house's guards enter the office, flanking Jean-Pierre's father, Duman, Sr., who is still very much alive. The contrast between the two is striking: both Dumans may be monsters, but where Jean-Pierre is a "spoiled rich kid," the elder Duman is a deadly, slow-moving cobra. Duman, Sr. says he contacted Flintridge Industries, who have never heard of Michael. Michael says there must be some mistake, he has worked closely with several executives at Flintridge, including one with an office facing the ocean, with a high balcony... Sam, listening over a radio from the street, realizes he is being given instructions, and readies a rifle. Jean-Pierre protests that Michael must be telling the truth, since he knew all about the Dumans' past work in Haiti, and that the F.B.I. are already investigating them... as he says it aloud, Jean-Pierre seems to belatedly realize that the same could be said for a well-informed agent seeking to entrap them. Jean-Pierre shrinks into a sulky little boy under his father's furious gaze, as Duman, Sr. reminds his son how often he has told Jean-Pierre to be careful. :It takes a lot longer to pull a gun than most people think it does. Almost five seconds on average to draw and line up a shot. Whether this is good news or bad news depends on what side of the gun you're on. Before one of the bodyguards can pull his gun from its shoulder holster, Sam fires, shattering the window nearest Michael. All the Haitians duck reflexively, while Michael leaps out of the windowsill to the ground below. Duman, Sr. yells for his men to kill Michael, but Michael dashes out of the compound and vaults over the gate as Sam pulls up in the Charger, firing a few shots from his own pistol to keep the Haitians' heads down, as Michael levers himself through the window of the passenger side, and they speed away. Act Four Back at the loft, Michael confers with the team and Claude. Michael says that now the Dumans know that someone is after them, the papers proving Jean-Pierre's identity will have been destroyed. Claude asks if that means there is nothing else they can do, and Michael says no, the papers were just one way of getting Jean-Pierre returned to Haiti. Michael proposes a more direct approach, and Claude confirms that, once Jean-Pierre is returned to Haiti, there will be several eyewitnesses who can identify him. :When you're abducting someone, transportation usually isn't the issue. There's no trick to driving a truck with someone hidden in the back. The challenge is getting them into the truck. You can walk them in, drag them in or let gravity do the work and drop them in. Sam gets hold of a tractor truck, and he and Michael outfit the cargo bed as a makeshift kidnap-mobile, removing the struts supporting a portion of the roof, cutting a hole in the roof that is patched with duct tape, and then creating a landing pad with pallets of empty boxes and a cheap mattress. Sam adds that he hopes the accommodations aren't "too comfortable" for a thief and killer like Duman. Sam meets Lane and Harris for lunch. Lane concedes that Sam's information on Duman is solid, and that Duman is a "real son of a bitch." The problem, Harris says, is they cannot get an arrest warrant, without proof of Duman's identity, which has now been destroyed. Sam begins to suggest that the FBI agents could still help out, but Lane cuts him off, saying any kind of official action would have to be approved by their superiors. Sam is crestfallen, but Harris drops his voice and asks if there is anything "unofficial" they can do to help. With a smile, Sam leans in... At a restaurant where French singing plays softly over the speakers, Fiona drops by and pretends surprise at seeing "Luc" at the bar, drowning his sorrows. After slipping through his bodyguards, she remarks on his sad face, and invites him back to her hotel room for a relaxing massage. :Spend time with corrupt, homicidal, Third World political figures, and you hear a lot of self-pity. What kind of man throws his political enemies in prison and tortures them to death? Usually it's a guy who feels so sorry for himself, he feels justified doing anything. Killers, by and large, are whining losers. But that doesn't make them any less dangerous. In his self-pitying funk, Jean-Pierre quickly decides that the sympathetic attention of a beautiful woman is the perfect tonic for all his troubles, and motions his bodyguards to follow him and "Claire" out. At the hotel, Jean-Pierre, dressed in a bathrobe, tells his bodyguards he does not want to be disturbed, and they reply with suggestive smiles, before he closes and chains the door. At Fiona's invitation, Jean-Pierre disrobes and lays face-down on her bed, allowing her to jab a syringe between his shoulder blades. :Most over-the-counter allergy medicines contain mild sedatives. In the right dosage, they cause a pleasant drowsiness. In the wrong dosage they cause dizziness, hallucinations and unconsciousness. Jean-Pierre's brief cry of pain alerts his bodyguards, who shout for him to open the door. Fiona signals Michael, who drops a rope ladder from the room above, climbs down, picks up the unconscious Jean-Pierre and drops him off the balcony to the hotel's loading bay, where Sam has the truck waiting. Jean-Pierre's body lands on the flimsy roof, crashing straight through and coming to rest on the mattress. Sam gives Michael a thumbs up and drives away, as Michael and Fiona climb up the rope ladder and then pull it up. By the time Jean-Pierre's bodyguards break down the door, their employer is gone, as is any trace of where he might be. In the parking lot of Michael's loft, Jean-Pierre (still in his bathrobe), shouts furiously around the tape over his mouth as Michael wrestles him into the trunk of Sam's car, while Claude watches in satisfaction. Sam advises Jean-Pierre not to strain his voice: it is a long trip back to Haiti, and Jean-Pierre will need to speak when he stands trial. The rage on Jean-Pierre's face gives way to abject terror, just before Sam slams the trunk lid down. Michael tells Claude that Sam has a friend with a boat, who will take both him and Jean-Pierre back to Haiti. He asks if Claude will leave Miami now, and Claude says he will. Before leaving, Claude tells Michael that Veronique would have liked him, as she was a very brave woman. "Like her father," Michael returns. Now that his job is done, Michael returns to Madeline's house with a box of tools, offering to fix the car. He is amazed to hear her say that she already fixed it. She went through some of Frank's old papers, found the diagram of the wires' original configuration, and simply followed it. "It wasn't that hard." Michael is even more amazed to hear that she resolved the neighborhood's burglary crisis without him: she identified two of the burglars from mug shots at the police station, and the police have caught them red-handed. Michael admits that he is lost for words. Madeline fingers the diagram and shares her theory that Frank wired the car in his own unique way so that he would be the only one who could fix it; an unconscious ploy to make sure his family would always need him. This gives Michael a pensive pause, wondering if Madeline's explanation is really so far off... Madeline asks Michael if he caught his target, "the guy who killed the girl." Michael snaps out of his reverie, and says he did. "Good for you, sweetheart," Madeline beams. Michael cannot help but smile; as he said before, most spies believe that "fighting for the little guy is for suckers," but Michael can't deny that it feels good. Sam meets Lane and Harris for lunch again. The two FBI agents are noticeably more upbeat, especially when Sam reports that Duman is now back in Haiti; apparently "someone" got the Coast Guard to back off and prevented the boat from being interdicted on its way out of Florida. Smiling, Lane and Harris say they don't know anything about that. Sam has more goodies for the agents: a list of U.S. officials who took kickbacks from Flintridge Industries, which Jean-Pierre coughed up in the vain hope of preventing his return to Haiti. Sam says the list will generate a good deal of investigative work for the F.B.I., and may provide enough evidence for them to indict Duman, Sr., as well. Again, Lane says they are not exactly acquiring this information "by the book," but when Sam offers to send them a card and a bouquet instead, Harris lays a hand down on the file and says they'll find a way to make use of it. Now that he and the agents are buddies again, Sam doesn't hesitate to cadge a free meal and a cocktail, paid for by Uncle Sam. That evening, Michael and Fiona are preparing a raid on the storage facility, having received a tip that the unit's owner will be opening it. Fiona is worried that it is a trap, and Michael agrees this is more than likely. Again, Fiona asks Michael if it is really worth the risk he's taking, and he says he thinks it is. He asks Fiona to watch his back, but, seeing her readying a sniper rifle, reminds her that he needs his would-be killer taken alive. "I need you alive," Fiona murmurs to herself, but Michael doesn't hear her. With Fiona watching, Michael approaches the storage unit. Fiona surveys the area through a night scope, but says she can see no one else. :If you suspect you're walking into an ambush, searching for where the bad guys are hidden is probably going to get you killed. Unless you get lucky and find them in the first place you look, you are dead. If you can manage it, the best move is to make it impossible to hide. Michael fires a flare pistol into the air, illuminating a man hiding above him on the roof of the storage unit which Fiona alerts Michael to. Realizing he's been found, the man takes off running, and Michael runs after him. :When you're in a foot chase, the trick is to stay in visual contact with whoever you're pursing until they run out of gas. Of course, visual contact doesn't do you much good if you're separated by a 12-foot-high razor-wire-topped fence. But the man is fast, and agile as a jungle cat, and jumps from the roof over the unit's barbed wire fence, where his car is parked. He turns back long enough to reveal himself to be none other than Victor, the man who Michael first met in Episode 206: Bad Blood. Victor then mockingly recommends that Michael add more cardiovascular fitness to his workout, before climbing into his car and speeding away despite Michael asking Victor to wait. Michael grimly informs Fiona that he recognizes the man who tried to kill him before. Cast Main * Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen * Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe * Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne * Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen Recurring * Michael Shanks as Victor Stecker-Epps * Marc Macaulay as Agent Harris * Brandon Morris as Agent Lane Guest * Basil Wallace as Claude Laurent * James Black as Jean-Pierre Duman * Javier Morga as Gustavo * Clarence Williams III as Duman, Sr. Trivia *"Truth and reconciliation" is a common name for commissions set up in formerly conflicted countries to investigate crimes perpetrated in those countries. The Haitian commission was known as The Hatian National Truth and Justice Commission, and was established in 1995 to investigate crimes performed by the military regime that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office and dominated the country from 1991 to 1994. *While pretending to be a Frenchwoman, Fiona uses the alias "Claire Honor" which means "Claire the Honored." Claire is later revealed to be the name of Fiona's younger sister, who was killed in Northern Ireland. Goofs *When Duman orders his men to take care of Claude, they are seen screwing silencers onto their pistols, however, when the guards open fire on Claude and Michael, their gunshots are clearly audible and not suppressed. *When Michael and Claude speed away from the Dumans' compound, a street sign is visible; in reality, there is only one street on Star Island, named Star Island Drive. The actual location of the Duman house is on South Northlake Dr. in Hollywood, FL, about 20 miles north of Miami. 214 Category:Season 2 Category:Season 2 Episodes